MUFON Cases of Interest: What Do You Think About The Buga Columbia Sphere?
By Bob Spearing
MUFON Director of International Investigations
There is a sensational story making the rounds in the world of Ufology and the world at large this month concerning a downed basketball sized sphere retrieved in Columbia in March. Real or Hoax? Let’s examine the evidence. But first a throwback! This has happened before!
I am getting flashbacks back to the 1970s concerning the alleged anomalous Betz Sphere. If you recall, according to Wikipedia “The Betz mystery sphere was a metal sphere with an approximate diameter of 8 inches (20 cm) weighing nearly 22 pounds (10 kg). On March 27, 1974, the Betz family investigated a small brush fire near their residence in Fort George Island, Florida. The family of three, …. came across a small metal sphere the size of a bowling ball….The Betzes reported that the sphere moved on its own several times, and that it would follow people around the house seemingly on its own.
In April 1974, United Press International (UPI) reported "The [United States Navy said the sphere is nothing more than a huge ball bearing used as a check valve in the piping system of some chemical plant."
The Betz Sphere was subsequently lost. An unimaginable tragedy for Ufology or so they say!
Now on March 4th, 2025 near the town of Buga, Columbia a very similar object purportedly was shocked out of the sky, crash landed and was recovered by a fellow named David Velez el Potro and a group of friends. One fellow in the group named only Jose felt sick for days after touching the object. However, one must ask why didn’t the others respond negatively the same way if the sphere was toxic in some sort of way! Red Flag # 1.
We are never told why or how the sphere was somehow brought down. Perhaps a Jake Barber-like military retrieval, and if so, how did the sphere end up in public hands, or is it a hoax?
This time, the Betz-like sphere has all sorts of fancy looking alien hieroglyphics and modern circuitry-looking imagery seemingly acid-etched into the surface of the sphere.
Reading numerous Reddit thread comments by hundreds of people made me come to the same conclusions about these etchings in the surface of the sphere. They were not done by pros. The etchings were really bad. Irregularities persist once a person starts looking closely. One Reddit user commented that, “Maybe an alien civilization isn’t into perfection so why are you criticizing them for doing a sloppy job.” I agree. Humans aren’t perfect. Maybe aliens aren’t also. We all make mistakes sometimes. That’s what makes us hum.. um, never mind.
There is so much video of the purported alien sphere flying across the sky from so many different angles including its soft landing, that one might think cameras were prepositioned. Hoax? I don’t know.
I will advise the audience here that we look at drones as pure quadcopters displaying green and red lights. Well, for many years, drones can have many other shapes including spheres. Why? They are called skins. Imagine a quadcopter enveloped in a sphere. The wind turbines need exhaust holes and this particular sphere does have an apparent set of 32 holes at its equator. Could we have a quadcopter in a spherical skin? Certainly not FAA approved lighting in any country but rogue elements do not care about air traffic considerations.
Most of what we know about this object comes from a report from the sensationalist U.K. Newspaper The Daily Mail. Please educate yourself here by reading their perspective on the event. Here is a link to that article:
The witness claimed that it was cold to the touch like a refrigerator but when water was poured on the spherical surface it steamed up as if the interior was hot. Would a cold surface produce stream? How could the witness hold it then for any length of time? Red Flag #2.
The sphere also supposedly changed in weight over time. Could we see proof of this? Red Flag 3. None so far anywhere!
The sphere was subsequently taken for laboratory analysis performed by a Dr Jose Luis Velazquez, a radiologist working for Germany Labs. There is actual video of the testing. Impressive if real!
Even Mexican Ufologist Jaime Maussan got into the groove here. Jaime was last seen pushing the alien mummies back in 2017 and the jury is still out on that but so far these so called “Paper Mache Fake Alien Mummies” are considered hoaxes and really did a job on Mr. Maussan’s credibility. Would he really want to further cloud his legacy with another possible dubious report? Red flag 4!
So, I got questions!!! Don’t you? I am not saying it’s a hoax but when applying the Scientific Method, if we wish to be thorough, my first inclination that something isn’t right is with the lack of verifiable sources! AND THAT IS THE WHOLE BALGAME! Trust but Verify! And I can’t verify anything so far!
The Daily Mail article quotes an unnamed source stating, “The sphere also displayed symbols that the team compared to ancient scripts, including runes, Ogham and Mesopotamian writing systems.” Red flag 5.
Who is the team that figured this translation out? A bunch of radiologists with minor degrees in ancient languages? If so, they need to get the Nobel Prize. Something, however, stinks here. That’s a stretch but the AI Translation of the hieroglyphics is even more dubious. The symbols were translated as a message from an alien civilization and the message reads as follows,” The origin of birth through union and energy in the cycle of transformation, meeting point of unity, expansion, and consciousness—individual consciousness.” What does that even mean?
We have been using AI for several years now to ever so slowly unlock patterns in ancient manuscripts written in languages dead to us today. Are you telling me some team of yet to be identified AI language historian radiologists from a lab that may not exist, figured out an alien inscription between March 4th and now? That’s sci-fi! I say Red Flag 6.
The one glaring caveat I have found so far is that nothing can be found online about Dr. Velazquez or Germany Labs which purportedly did the testing. Red Flag 7!
However, unless we are dealing with an very elaborate hoax filmed in a lab setting with actors, the YouTube videos do appear to show that some sort of X-Ray analysis may have legitimately been done on the sphere. However, that does not prove the legitimacy of the object being alien by any stretch of the imagination.
Let’s look at the Buga Sphere itself. A big clear photo is needed here so we don’t miss a detail!
Look at those crescent moons, five in all. Look at that etching work. It sucks!
Look at that microchip engraving in the middle. What is the point? How did AI purportedly use this symbol to decipher a message to humanity from an Alien Race?
Look at the little yellow splash marks. They are etched into the surface of the sphere. Very pretty. When the X-Ray analysis was done, it showed 16 white dots that perfectly correspond to the yellow drop patterns on the sphere’s surface. I do not understand how the X-Ray is showing “16 micro-spheres in the interior of the sphere. I see 16 surface objects in a pattern that when X-Ray-ed look like X-Ray images of the 16 yellow surface dots. I could be wrong!. My argument is we are not looking at 16 micro-spheres deep inside the object but simply an X-Ray view of the 16 yellow tear drop etchings on the surface. Let’s do a comparison!
Massaun did an interview with a podcaster. It went like this according to the Daily MAIL. “The outer layer appeared to be the densest—comparable to human bone.”
Who decided this is comparable to human bone? I DON’T BUY THIS CRAP!
'The center of the sphere shows a lower radio-acoustic density than the edge, indicating an internal structure that may be more porous or composed of less dense material than the outer shell,' said Nacho Rojo, host of the YouTube channel Hidden Truth, during the interview with Maussan. Is Nacho Roho a density expert? Id Jaime Massaun? NO!
Simple request here! Can we see the lab report? MUFON has two laboratories that could confirm this seeming crap. Send us the material if you want real confirmation! If not, this is all theatre! I hope I am proved wrong but until concrete scientific reports are forthcoming, this is all Gar’ Bage’.
Personally, I think we are getting yanked yet again!
Let’s keep going! Let’s go to the equator of the object where we see the rim that supposedly has no seam. There are purportedly 32 holes going around the equator of the object where we see an odd band. While the experts suggest this is a seamless alien tech object with no observable rivets or seams or workmanship suggesting this object was manufactured and assembled, I disagree.
As a matter of fact, I think what we are looking at, and please believe me reader that I am humble enough to admit if I am wrong, we are looking at something very, very similar to what the United States Navy came to a conclusion about concerning the Betz Sphere.
I sincerely believe that we are looking at a TC4 Titanium Ball Pressure Vessel Water Tank. It is available on eBay for 599 dollars used! Nuf Said!
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I may be wrong. Int to give Jaime Massaun the benefit of the doubt after the Mummies thing but I feel there is a rational earthly ex0planation for the Columbian sphere.
I absolutely need to give a shout out to Reddit Users across the globe! Their nose for a fraud is astonishing! They not only proffer theories, they post proof! Sometimes within hours and destroy narratives less informed people might be gullible enough to accept.
There is one more aspect to this story I find fascinating and cannot verify. As I mentioned earlier, multiple video angles exist if this object flying and subsequently descending softly to what seems to be a controlled landing rather than a crash landing. No dents. No heat searings as if it came into Earth[‘s atmosphers at an incredible rate of speexc. It displays almost drone like capabilities as I suggested earlier.
Bob Spearing is MUFON's Director of International Investigations.
He can be contacted at: doii@mufon.com
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